Saturday, August 27, 2005

Soldier gets punished by family court

Two nationally syndicated news shows - one radio, one television - are working on stories about Army National Guard Spc. Joe McNeilly of Grand Ledge.

McNeilly says he lost custody of his 10-year-old son, Joey, because of his service in Iraq. ...

McNeilly, 33, returned in March after serving 15 months in Iraq. He agreed to give his ex-girlfriend Holly Erb of Mason temporary full custody while he was deployed.

A custody order said the issue would be revisited when McNeilly returned from Iraq, but a court referee in May recommended against restoring shared custody.

The referee's report said the court favored Erb because she was the "day-to-day caretaker and decision maker in the child's life" while McNeilly was deployed.

The court also said that Erb had established a custodial environment for Joey while McNeilly was deployed.

Erb's lawyer, Theresa Sheets of Lansing, has said Erb is concerned that McNeilly is not a fit father. Sheets pointed to some postcards that McNeilly sent his son from Iraq depicting soldiers in training. She said they frightened the boy.

Neither Erb nor Sheets returned messages for comment Wednesday.

This is a disgrace. McNeilly served his country honorably, and now the family court wants to punish him and his son for it. If anything, the mother is in the wrong for demonizing the dad's military service, and opportunistically using the service to move away and get more support payments.

4 comments:

Anonymous
said...

You should make sure you have all the facts before posting things. In an update Joe McNeilly has been fired by more than one lawyer because he refuses to follow rules. He has now as of June 2008 told his son he is not his father because his son chooses to attend church on Sunday instead of spending the day with him. He has to this date refused to pay child support or release information of his work place or insurance information so his son can be taken care of. And he also will not tell people he is the one who went to the mother and signed custody over to her in the first place. He then ran off and married a woman who took advantage of him while over in Iraq and divorced him upon return. He has not tried to provide a stable environment for his son he would rather play house and have fun.

it's interesting that others would choose to post their opinions rather than facts and actually would post something as anonymous. This just shows they are obviously trying to hide their true identity. Surely anyone who posts something like that -- lacks truth, honesty, and credibility. Whoever you are -- GROW UP.

I went to the mother and signed custody over to her -- wow. that's pretty funny. one lie after another. again - GROW UP "ANONYMOUS".

I don't need to know about the petty accusations. McNeilly served his country honorably in war. He has a son. That is all I need to know. He should not lose custody of his son on account of his war service.

By being annonymous has nothing to do with lack of truth just knowledge of how the father has retaliated in the past against people who think differently than he does. Yes he is a father and as far as that he should have acted as one instead of a hormonal teenager and using his son as a weapon. I am talking of facts that were taken from public court records. And in the latest post it stated the son does not want to live with his father. Read it for yourself. Ingham County Michigan. The courthouse is located in Mason.